Michelle is pursuing an MFA in poetry. She holds a BA from Florida State University. Last summer she was awarded a scholarship to attend the Squaw Valley Community of Writers, and was the 2015-2016 Walton Fellow in Poetry. This year she teaches creative writing at the University of Arkansas.
Michelle says, “It’s amazing to do WITS, to show students that words, writing, it doesn’t have to be what their teacher says it is—five paragraph essays, traditional syntax, serious tone, “the truth.” It doesn’t even have to be what I say it is. Learning that language is something to take ownership of rather than be passively subject to—for me, that’s where poetry began, and I hope that’s something these students can learn too.”